Lunes y Martes

Monday we spent the day relaxing poolside again, this time with much stronger SPF, reapplying religiously. We met the nicest couple lying next to us at the pool--newlyweds from Indianapolis! Abby and Eric just got married this past weekend, and they were fortunate enough to have their honeymoon go off without a hitch just after the wedding. :-)

The 4 of us really click, and we hung out again on Tuesday at the resort's "Welcome Fiesta," complete with margaritas y mariachi band!























When the host (a Mexican Adam Sandler) asked for volunteers on the stage, Abby & I both gladly volunteered our husbands. I think Wheeler and Eric were secretly excited for the opportunity, as Mexican Sandler was holding a large bottle of tequila in his hand. Mexican Sandler had one of the band members demonstrate what each contestant needed to do in order to win a bottle of Jose Cuervo...the contest included a microphone, a shot of Cuervo, and topped off with an authentic high-pitched Mexican Scream.


















It was a close competition between the 2 boys (funny enough, the 2 ladies competing both had man voices), but Wheeler won the popular vote and walked off stage with said bottle of liquor, which we all promptly poured into our previously weak (but free) margaritas. At our table, we also made friends with a couple of nice fishermen on their annual Cabo fishing trip (seen in the background of the tequila bottle photo below). I think Eric was hoping they would invite him out on their boat, but no matter how much tequila we poured, sadly...no invitation. Turns out these boats are super expensive and only fit a few people on at one time. 'A' for Effort though Eric!

































Later that night, we all changed into our bathing suits and met back at the pool for a moonlit swim/poolside night cap with our newly won bottle of tequila and our handy iPod stereo. Nothing like being able to swim outside at 9:00 at night in October!

We made it!!!

So with only a half hour of internet time per day on our resort, we have decided not to spend it posting the blogs...rather, you all will have to wait for the details and photos of the trip upon our return to the states. But in the meantime, we will document our experiences and our thoughts along the way. Enjoy!

October 3rd, 2009

After a full year of waiting our honeymoon to finally come, we have finally made it to our Cabo destination on the gorgeous resort, Hacienda del Mar! Upon our arrival, it was pouring rain, which everyone informed us only happens about 5 days a year (lucky us). It made for some HUGE puddles as we made our way in the rental car along the main highway ("The Corridor") between San Jose del Cabo and San Lucas. Our resort was just about a 10 minute drive outside of San Lucas, the energetic nightlife half of Los Cabos.

Views from the plane

Even amidst the rain, as we drove up to the resort, we could hardly believe our eyes at how incredible this place looked. Very traditional hacienda style Mexican villas, surrounded by palm trees and fountains.


During our check-in, when we told them our whole sob-story of just how long we had been awaiting this honeymoon, the nice gentleman at the front desk immediately informed us that he would be upgrading our suite to a nice 2-story suite with an ocean view! When we stepped in, it was better than we had envisioned! Complete with a full kitchen, Jacuzzi, 2 balconies, 2 full baths, etc. Loving every minute!




Our first night here, we went into San Lucas, and ate at a very authentic Mexican restaurant called Mi Casa, complete with a Mariachi band. The food and margaritas were muy delicioso!

After dinner, as we attempted to navigate our way from downtown back to our hotel, we realized that we were most certainly not in America anymore! We were surprised to find that even right there in touristy Cabo, it was pretty desolate living conditions for the locals...I admit, I kind of freaked out as we drove through a not-so-good neighborhood (neither of us having any idea where we were really going), at midnight. We drove past prostitutes, stray dogs, and kids still running around in the streets. Needless to say, I was very relieved when we made it back on the main road and back to our very gringo resort.

Our 1 Year Anniversary!

We woke up on our first full day--our 1 year Anniversary! It is so hard to believe that the wedding was already a year ago. In so many ways, it seems like just yesterday that we were able to share such a special day with so many of our close family & friends. And in so many other ways, it feels like an eternity because it's been a whole year since we've been home, or even back there in New England! Fortunately, after this wonderful week, we also get to go home to visit family just a few days after our return to LA!

"The first wedding anniversary is a special anniversary. This anniversary is the official end to the couple’s newlywed status. It sets the precedent for how a couple will celebrate their anniversaries in the future and reflects the romance of their newlywed year. How often do you eat year-old cake and are happy about it! Many people eat the top tier of their wedding cake on this day. The traditional reason for saving the top tier of a wedding cake was to use as a christening cake, though most modern brides and grooms save it to eat on their first anniversary for good luck and a sweet reminder of their special day."


Though we didn't spend our 1st Anniversary eating year-old cake (although we do plan to do that as soon as we get home to Vermont later in the month!), we were fortunate enough to spend it in beautiful, sunny Cabo, and enjoyed the majority of it relaxing pool/beach side--finally! We had been waiting to step foot in that infinity pool for YEARS now, ever since we discovered this resort while researching honeymoon destinations, way back in 2007! And the resort is more than living up to our expectations! Multiple organically-shaped pools, all along the beach view, have little foot bridges and waterfalls, and each one offers a slightly different temperature, starting off as bathwater and with each pool, gets a little more cool the further down you go. Of course, it's so hot here, the coolest pool is deliciously refreshing, and that's the one that Wheeler and I have found ourselves laying next to the most.
We are right on the Sea of Cortez, and the waves break right on the shoreline, causing some extreme undertow here at the resort. Hence, they do not recommend swimming in the ocean in our particular portion of the beach. Did I think that would stop Wheeler? I would be surely mistaken to think so. Of course, he decided the current was assuredly much overrated, and he was going to brave the enormous waves himself. As he sauntered down to the water, crashing high above our heads, people warned that he shouldn't go in by himself. Again, he was not to be deterred. I stood close by, and made sure that the lifeguards were also not too far away, in the event that SuperWheels happened to...get in over his head. The undertow WAS very strong, and fortunately Wheeler is a good swimmer, and smart enough not to test his luck too much. He had a few minutes of fun, and then (with my insistence), came back for a swim within the safe confines of the pool.
About 5 hours, not nearly enough sunscreen, and a nice start to our tans (errr...burns) later, Wheeler and I ended our wonderful first Anniversary with a romantic dinner at the renowned 5-Star restaurant right there at our resort, Pitahayas (courtesy as a wedding gift from my amazing friend & bridesmaid, Shibani!).

This restaurant is considered one of the best of all dining experiences there in Los Cabos, and we just so happened to have it right at our fingertips at our resort! We indulged in one of THE most exquisite meals we have ever had the pleasure of consuming. Located overlooking the beach, under a giant "palapa" roof, the restaurant was surprisingly empty, and Wheeler and I enjoyed attentive service and food that was beyond amazing. First, we started with some refreshing white wine, and had a toast to our first year of marriage. As they say here in Mexico to toast: "Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa dentro!" (Up, down, center, inside!). Next, we shared an appetizer of crispy, spicy coconut shrimp with a delicious mango sauce, after which, our waiter brought over a nice sorbet to cleanse our pallets, compliments of the house! Perhaps that was because we had both ordered some of the most expensive entrees off of the menu, haha! Wheeler had the seared tuna over some Asian-style noodles, and my filet minon over garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, and BBQed jumbo shrimp was out of this world!!! Needless to say, neither of us saved room for dessert.

After dinner, we decided to walk off some of the food, and took a stroll through the resort, ending at the bell tower, overlooking the property and the beach, with what appeared to be a full moon. Que romantico!I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate our first year of marriage! And if what they say is true about the first anniversary setting a precedent for future anniversaries, then I would say that Wheeler and I have a lifetime of romantic anniversaries to come!

Challenges and Dreams

Back in the spring, I received the following email message less than a week before we were scheduled to leave:

"...In life there will always be challenges that have manifested, and dreams that haven't. But they'll always pale in comparison to the number of dreams that have manifested, and challenges that haven't." ~The Universe

Talk about foreshadowing what was to come! I didn't think much of it at the time, but after our trip was once again postponed, the significance of this message hit me like a ton of bricks. And it made me realize that perhaps there was a more positive perspective I could take on what was a devastating, unfortunate challenge getting in the way of our long-awaited dream of going on a honeymoon.

The reality is that as annoying as it has been to have our honeymoon postponed so many times, Wheeler and I are actually very fortunate to be in the position where we can even take a vacation to Cabo, especially during the state of the current economy. It can be so easy to lose sight of that when faced with a number of challenges, but as this message reminds us, the number of good things in life typically outweigh the bad. We often take these things for granted, so I'm making it my personal goal to be grateful for the things that have worked in our favor.

In regards to our upcoming vacation, I am particularly grateful for:

• My parents, who made this entire trip possible by giving us a week of their timeshare
  
  


• Wheeler's mom, who purchased our direct flight for the re-scheduled trip after we lost $800 on our original flight (Challenge #2 with the hurricane fiasco was that AeroMexico refused to refund our tickets even though the hurricane was hitting Cabo the day we were flying down there).
  
  


• All of our friends and family who provided us with honeymoon gift certificates that will allow us to experience some really fun adventures, dinners, and drinks in Cabo!
  
  


• A direct flight from LA to Cabo through American Airlines, which turned out to be half as much $$ as the original AeroMexico flight, even though it was going to have a layover in Mexico City (of all places)!
  
  


• Getting to stay at one of the top rated resorts on the Baja Peninsula--a place that we picked out as our #1 resort through RCI timeshares way back in the spring of 2006!!!
  
  


• Our friend Megan, who is going to take care of our wonderful kitty, Pepper (Pepper has a bit of separation anxiety due to her first few years of life being passed around between different homes). We will miss her terribly while we're gone, but it's nice to know that she'll be in good hands.
  

Thank you all!

Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

I don't want to get too excited, especially after getting let down about this trip twice within one year...but if all goes well (for once), we will FINALLY be in Cabo in just 12 days!!!!

Have you been to Cabo? If so, what's your absolute favorite thing to do there? What's the one thing we MUST be sure to do on our postponed honeymoon?

Fingers Crossed

Swine Flu Paranoia

OK, 24 days till the UBER-long awaited Honeymoon in Cabo! Please keep your fingers crossed that hurricanes are done taunting the Baja Peninsula, and that any random unfortunate mishaps (see above) stay away until at least October 11th.

The countdown begins...again

32 days!

32 days from now (fingers crossed), we will *finally* be on our way to Cabo!!! We begin the countdown for the THIRD time now, in the hopes that the 3rd time is a charm. We're scheduled to fly down on October 3rd, just the day before our 1 year anniversary! I think the long wait will make the eventual trip all that much more enjoyable.

As Susan Jeffries said: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for. If it is worth attaining, it is worth fighting for. If it is worth experiencing, it is worth putting aside time for."


Well after a wait like this it's inevitably going to be worth it. I cannot wait to just relax in the Mexican sol. After almost an entire year (!) of no vacation (yes it's true--I didn't even have any vaca time time around the Holidays), this will be a sweet, sweet vacacione en el sol.

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words...

This exemplifies why we're not going to Cabo:

Typical Speidi...as usual, they look so..."happy".

Just what every girl dreams of for her honeymoon.

They say "When pigs fly"...well now the swine flu.

So what exactly do YOU think that means for us?

Stupid Swine

A friend sent me this photo, and I couldn't resist posting it.

With that said...as annoyed as I still am that this has prevented our
a tropical vacation as planned for next week, I'm actually very excited to have something to look forward to for our
1 year Anniversary!
Now fingers crossed that all hurricanes steer clear of Cabo in October.

Hasta Luego Cabo...

Well...we've given it much thought and have ultimately decided that this swine flu is not worth the risk. We very well might be able to go and not get infected, but the very idea of getting sick like that on our long awaited honeymoon is enough to make us postpone it...again. Not to mention, getting on a plane wearing face masks is certainly not the way we want to set the tone for our honeymoon, and having the swine flu threat looming over our heads the whole time we're down there is far from our ideal, relaxing vacation.

Now, when most people hear what's going on, their first response tends to be "Well just go somewhere else! Go to Hawaii!" Here's the thing: my parents gave us a week of their timeshare exchange as a wedding gift. More than 2 years ago, I spent countless hours researching where we wanted to go, and which resorts were our top picks. We were placed on a waiting list through RCI (the timeshare exchange), and wound up getting our #1 resort choice...Hacienda Del Mar!


Since you have to book so far in advance, the best resorts are always full when we have these disasters foil our plans. So unfortunately, it's not as simple as just getting our money back from a hotel and booking something elsewhere. Either we go now, or we wait until the resort opens up again.

So Honeymoon Foil #1: Hurricane Norbert strikes the day we're scheduled to fly down. Our resort was booked solid until the week of May 4th. So we said ok, this sucks but we can handle it...it will just give us more time to save up and plan the trip! And we'll be there for cinco de mayo!

Fast forward 6 1/2 months...we're finally a week away from our rescheduled honeymoon!

Honeymoon Foil #2: Swine Flue. Now the resort is booked through until October 3rd. Well...looks like we'll be going just in time for our 1 year anniversary (10/4)!

We decided we'd much prefer going when we can be 100% relaxed and have absolutely zero worries for the week. Trying to get over the whole frustration of this is difficult (especially when we were in the mindset of being on vacation next week), but as Wheeler and I keep reminding ourselves, we'd much rather have a happy marriage and no honeymoon than vice-versa. Hey, if the honeymoon never gets here, it can never be over right? ;-)

In the meantime, we'll just take a 3-day weekend and do some things around SoCal that we've been wanting to do and haven't had the time/money to do yet.

"The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry"

Now let's just hope the 3rd time really IS a charm...

An Omen?

I don’t want to let this current outbreak of swine flu ruin or FURTHER postpone our belated honeymoon, which was already rescheduled once due to a hurricane. Why it is that something always happens right as we’re about to head down to Cabo? The death toll in Mexico jumped to over 100 overnight and the number of infected people is reported at more than 1400 since April 13th, with reported cases in Cabo San Lucas. It’s as if Cabo is telling us we’re not meant to go there. :-(

We’ve been planning this and looking forward to this trip for literally…2 YEARS now. We spent a long time on the waiting list just to get the timeshare exchange for this resort, so it seems ridiculous to cancel the trip altogether…

I’m taking a poll: should we postpone the honeymoon AGAIN or keep the trip as planned and do our best not to get infected with this thing?

20 days until...

Mexican bliss!

I can't WAIT to lounge by this infinity edge pool while sipping margaritas!

In addition to this much needed R&R, we're also in the process of planning out which fun activities we're going to venture off the resort for...

Thanks to some amazing honeymoon registry wedding gifts from our beloved friends and family, we already have some awesome things in mind such as Parasailing, Sunset Dinner Cruise, ATV Tour, Kayaking, and Horseback Riding on the Beach, and some amazing dinners/nights out at some of the local hot spots!

We're also thinking of going zip lining, which is probably the closest thing you could do to feel like you're flying over the Boca de Sierra National Park! We're also considering swimming with the dolphins, jet skiing, and snorkeling at el arco! I can't wait!!!

And when we don't feel like doing anything at all, we're staying at an amazing place with something like 6 restaurants, 2 bars, plus a swim-up bar and beach bar! Can you tell I'm excited? This really can't come soon enough! :-)

Day 1, Sexy By Honeymoon!

As many of you know, our original honeymoon plans were postponed due to Hurricane Norbert, which decided to hit Mexico's Baja Peninsula the day we were scheduled to fly down back in October. Our honeymoon was postponed by a hurricane named Norbert...couldn't it at least have had a proper, menacing name like Bruno?! Interesting, considering one of the reasons we chose Cabo is because it's one of the few locations that time of year that is not typically affected by hurricane season. Our honeymoon just so happened to land on the first hurricane to touch down in Cabo in 40 YEARS. true story.

So thanks to Norbert, we took a "mini-moon" down to San Diego just after the wedding, and we've been eagerly awaiting our Cabo trip for the past 6 months. Hard to believe it's been 6 months since the wedding! It actually worked out really well because it gave us something fun to look forward to. And 3 weeks from today we'll be finally on our way to bask in the glow of the beautiful Cabo sun.

In the meantime, I'm joining forces with a few supportive friends at work to try out a 14 day healthy eating diet which should help me out in the bikini-body department! I shall call this Mission: Sexy By Honeymoon! Essentially the Scarsdale Medical Diet is a low-carb, low-calorie system with specific foods to each at each meal for exactly 14 days.

Today is Day 1, and I AM HUNGRY! So far, all I've had to eat is half an orange, a slice of plain wheat toast, mint tea, and 4 slices of cold cut turkey and chicken--and of course, lots of water! I can't wait for dinner tonight when I'll have fresh grilled tilapia with lemon juice, and lots of fresh fruit and veggies! Never in my life have I even counted calories, let alone gone on a structured diet of any kind...so this is a bit of an adjustment for me...I just hope I don't pass out on the treadmill tonight!

So my apologies if I end up a bit...cranky this week! :-)